China

Change and Tradition

A 6-week Summer Abroad Program

Duration

Description

Experience urban and rural realities in today’s China: explore mega-cities and remote mountain villages; discover the ethnic tapestry that is modern China.

Dates

Jun 28 - Aug 8, 2020

Suggested Ages

15-17

Number of Participants

12

Availability

Closed

Begins In

41 Weeks

Land Cost

$7,410

Estimated Flight Cost

$2,010

Beijing

Xi'an

Chengdu

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Guizhou

Program Overview

When you visit China for the first time, it doesn’t take long to realize that everything is changing at warp speed.

Old neighborhoods of wooden houses are demolished to make way for 80-story buildings. Streets once filled with bicycles are now jammed with shiny new cars. Buddhist monks read ancient sutras from iPads, and millions of rural farmers move between home and work in the city to support their families. New highways, rail lines and airports are underway virtually everywhere, in a race to keep up with 1.4 billion people on the move. If you want to understand the world we live in, there’s no way to ignore China. On the Change and Tradition summer program, we travel to remote communities where ethnic minorities strive to balance traditions with new opportunities. We visit dense urban neighborhoods where demolition is underway and learn about how life is changing as developers move in and residents relocate. As we travel across China by foot, train, bus and boat, we learn just how diverse it is. We witness the amazing capacity of people in China to adjust and adapt, and with each new experience…

Old neighborhoods of wooden houses are demolished to make way for 80-story buildings. Streets once filled with bicycles are now jammed with shiny new cars. Buddhist monks read ancient sutras from iPads, and millions of rural farmers move between home and work in the city to support their families. New highways, rail lines and airports are underway virtually everywhere, in a race to keep up with 1.4 billion people on the move. If you want to understand the world we live in, there’s no way to ignore China. On the Change and Tradition summer program, we travel to remote communities where ethnic minorities strive to balance traditions with new opportunities. We visit dense urban neighborhoods where demolition is underway and learn about how life is changing as developers move in and residents relocate. As we travel across China by foot, train, bus and boat, we learn just how diverse it is. We witness the amazing capacity of people in China to adjust and adapt, and with each new experience we take on, we challenge ourselves to do the same.

This program is Dragons version of an “Introduction to China” and part of what makes it unique is that our journey changes each year as we encourage our instructors to explore new areas and teach to their passions and interests with their intrepid students. Past Change and Tradition groups have hiked to mountain villages in Guizhou to learn how bamboo is harvested, bonded with Tibetan host families amidst the stark beauty of Qinghai Province, lived like monks at a historic Buddhist monastery in Chongqing, journeyed into the Gobi Desert, rehearsed Beijing Opera postures with a master performer, and worked on an ecological farm in Sichuan.

Each summer’s program has some important things in common: We travel through several provinces with a very ambitious goal: trying to get a sense of China as a whole. We spend time in some of the most remote corners of China, hiking beyond roads and learning about life for people on the periphery. We spend time living with rural host families, following the daily routines of farmers and herders. We visit cities of millions still unknown to many Americans, learning about the massive economic and social changes that have taken place over the last few decades. We meet artists, environmentalists, researchers and entrepreneurs, school children and migrant workers. On this journey we get to know an incredible variety of places and people, with outlooks and experiences very different from one another and from our own. By the time we head home, having made friends, asked questions, and embraced so much that is new, it’s not the differences that stick with us, but all of the things we have in common.

Testimonials

Our son was profoundly affected by the experience in China. He not only witnessed and experienced how differently much of the world lives, but his inner landscape was revealed to him, through the process and, in particular, by your expert guidance and thoughtful exercises. While he had fun, and that was very important to him, he also was challenged to grow, first finding out more about himself and his capacities and then by connecting that to even deeper meaning.

Michael Finkelstein

Parent, 2016

"This summer was, without a doubt, one of the best (if not the best) I have ever had because of this trip. It opened up a whole new world to me, one of exploration and independence and risk taking, that I do not have access to at home...This trip has made me want to become a traveler."

Matthew Katz

"The highlight of my experience was the Labrang monastery, and just my stay in Xiahe in general. It is without a doubt the most beautiful and peaceful place I have been in my life."

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A Closer Look

I've experienced places and interactions with people that I've never even dreamed of...

“I’ve experienced places and interactions with people that I’ve never even dreamed of and have been allowed to see a part of the world completely different from my own and fall in love with it.”

Julia Silbert China: Change and Tradition

Our Great Adventure on the Mediocre Wall of China

Our previous experiences in this country pale in comparison to the breathtaking sight ahead. An external spine rising out of the hills, the Wall stands before us imposing and impossibly long. We are young. We are small. This place will endure long past our time. Those that came before us and those who will come after will embrace the same energy we encountered in our night here.
While the temperature is mercifully cool, the humidity still leaves our clothing and blankets uncomfortably sticky. As we lie on the unforgiving stone guard tower, most of us with little more than a thin sheet for protection, there is an overwhelming realization of the privileges we have back home. In this space many of us are as vulnerable as we will ever be. The feeling is humbling.
When we reached the top we could see our pasts and our futures placed before us in the treacherous mountains and distant fields. As darkness settled on the Wall, we had a moment to pause and reflect on the constantly shifting courses of our lives. This is China. It is wild and ancient, beautiful and dangerous. Our time here made us push ourselves past what we thought was imaginable. It made us question our lives at home and grow in our individual understandings of the world.
It is memories like these that we still consider dreams that define what happened on this trip. There is no forgetting a night spent on one of the great wonders of the world. There is no forgetting China.